How unusual it is to walk into a hotel ballroom and find an excellent art gallery ready and waiting? And that that gallery has one of the finest collections of Rembrandt etchings in the world on display. More so given the ballroom is in the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Muscat in Oman.
The Finest Etchings in the World
“Rembrandt in Oman,” hosted by the Grand Hyatt and sponsored by the Al-Salmi Library, is not an exhibition given over to Rembrandt’s work in or about this Arabian state. Instead it is an exhibition about his etchings, which are without doubt among the finest in the world.
There is though a distraction on the way in with paneled walls telling the story of how the Dutch and Omani states have had some link going back to the mid-seventeenth century. This was done by the Dutch East India Company and continues to this day in trade links and exhibitions like this. And what an exhibition to have as part of the link.
There is a certain solemnity to the ballroom with its space and dimmed lights that only underscores the near perfection of the etchings of display. There are a hundred of them and they show the skill, the very real skill, of Rembrandt as an etcher.
Beautiful Doodles
Even the ones that nowadays would be called doodles have a beauty to them that is rarely found elsewhere. There are two of these on display which pale into insignificance before the 100 or so more proper etchings.
These subdivide into three distinct groups, portraits, landscapes and Biblical themes. Of these the first group have some exquisite pieces of work. The two of his mother are remarkable especially as one is so small, but it is wrong to single them out as it is all so good.
There is something amazing, probably, at the level of genius, about a man who can convey the texture of both fur and velvet using only black lines. Then there are the hands. In simple black and white lines, all very small, the texture of the back of the hands is conveyed.
Different but no less brilliant are Biblical scenes where stories from both the Old and New Testaments and surprising the apocryphal books of both were used as inspiration. With some themes the full skill of Rembrandt comes to the fore. Two linger in the imagination. One is the dark but beautiful shepherds visiting the infant Jesus. The other is the light, almost minimalist Christ as Emmaus.
Paradoxically what lets the exhibition down is an attempt to explain it further. Plonked down in the middle of the ballroom is a TV stand which plays endlessly a film explaining in rather faltering and stilted manner both the rest of Rembrandt’s work and how he made his etchings. Best forget it and let the etchings speak for themselves.
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